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“Having said that, we had a few that didn’t play either and we’re expecting to improve this week. It’s all building up for a great game.

“Both teams have got really strong packs and there’s going to be a massive battle in the middle there.”

Behind those packs of forwards, both teams will be looking to engineer opportunities for their strike players.

Saints will be hoping Australian fullback Ben Barba will be their ace-in-the-hole following a return to form in recent weeks.

Holbrook also insists his team learned lessons from their last semi-final appearance when a sub-standard performance saw them knocked out of the Challenge Cup by Catalans Dragons.

He added: “Benny’s proven how good he is this year and it’s great to have him back to his best having got over some niggling injuries.

“We’ve also got James Roby back now after a few niggles which is great for us too.

“We’ve got everyone firing at the right end of the season so there will be no excuses; we’ve got to play well on Thursday.

“We were happy with our preparation going into the Catalans game in the Cup but the way we started the game was very poor. We made six errors in the first twenty minutes and the opposition didn’t make any.